From Corporate to Cocktails: Del's Journey in Spirits
Today’s chat is all about diving into the world of entrepreneurship with my good buddy, Del Paez, who’s got a wealth of experience under his belt. Right off the bat, we tackle the big question: what pushes someone to leap from the cushy comfort of corporate life into the wild ride of starting their own gig? Del shares his journey from a high-flying career at Seagram to co-founding Orinoco Spirits, bringing French vibes to Latin America. We dig into the nitty-gritty of building a business, the ups and downs of networking, and the surprising lessons that come with being your own boss. So, if you’ve ever thought about breaking free from the corporate grind or just want to hear some engaging stories from the front lines of entrepreneurship, this one’s for you!
Meet Del Paez, a seasoned entrepreneur whose journey from the corporate world to founding Orinoco Spirits is both enlightening and entertaining. This episode gives you the kind of insider scoop you’d expect from a long chat over drinks—only this time, the drinks are all about spirits. Del’s background is rich with experiences from Seagram Spirits and Wine, where he navigated the corporate landscape before deciding to take the plunge into entrepreneurship. He opens up about the pivotal moment when he realized that the security of a corporate job could vanish overnight, prompting the leap into creating something uniquely his own. Del’s story is relatable; he shares the fears, excitements, and realizations that come with such a significant transition.
The conversation shifts gears as Del dives into the nitty-gritty of what it takes to build a brand in the competitive spirits market. From initial consulting gigs that laid the groundwork to the actual launch of Orinoco, he highlights the blend of strategy, tenacity, and a bit of luck that are essential for success. Del shares stories of the early struggles with cash flow and the learning curve that comes from managing a startup, emphasizing how critical it is to have a financial cushion before taking the plunge. His anecdotes about navigating the challenges of establishing distribution channels in Latin America are not just informative; they’re filled with humor and a sense of camaraderie that every entrepreneur can appreciate.
Towards the end, Del reflects on the emotional aspects of entrepreneurship—the exhilarating highs and the gut-wrenching lows. He talks about the importance of maintaining a balanced perspective, stressing that while the journey can be tumultuous, it’s also immensely rewarding. Del’s insights on building a supportive network and embracing the unpredictability of business will resonate with anyone considering a similar path. This episode is more than just a business story; it’s a celebration of resilience, passion, and the unyielding spirit of entrepreneurship, wrapped up in a warm and engaging dialogue that leaves listeners inspired to chase their own dreams.
Takeaways:
- Leaving the corporate world can be a scary leap, but it brings freedom and control over destiny.
- Starting a business is a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs; keep your eyes on the prize.
- Networking shifts dramatically when you leave a corporate title behind; prepare for surprises.
- Financial stability is crucial; always have a safety net before diving into entrepreneurship.
- Emotional resilience is key; expect the highs and lows but stay focused on your vision.
- Building a business takes time; consider buying an established one for a smoother ride.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Seagram Spirits and Wine
- Orinoco Spirits
- MPI Franchising
- Pernod Ricard
- Joseph E. Seagram and Sons
- Brown Foreman
- Diplomatico Rum
- Highland Queen
- Ecolab
Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:Hi everybody.
Speaker B:Parnell Woodard, your host from the Pivot point and really excited to bring you a gentleman today that, that I have the pleasure of calling an old friend.
Speaker B:Not old in age, but old in terms of years ago.
Speaker B:We worked together back in the late 90s at Seagram Spirits and Wine.
Speaker B:Please welcome Del Paez to the session today.
Speaker B:A little background on Dell.
Speaker B:He's got about 25 years of senior executive experience across startups, small to mid sized businesses and global consumer goods as well.
Speaker B:Dynamic leader, really.
Speaker B:Renowned for driving revenue and profitable growth.
Speaker B:He excels at transforming vision into tangible results, building brands and achieving some very ambitious business objectives.
Speaker B:His expertise spans strategic planning, business development, mergers and acquisitions, capital raise, investor relations, product development, branding and some international expansion as well.
Speaker B:Real strength there.
Speaker B: co founded orinoco spirits in: Speaker B:So we'll spend a little time on digging into his experiences with building that business that spearheaded the distribution of French spirits in Latin America.
Speaker B:And he also served as CEO of MPI Franchising, helping successfully expand an American franchise into seven countries.
Speaker B:He's held executive roles at Pernod Ricard and Joseph E.
Speaker B:Seagram and Sons.
Speaker B:Welcome Dell.
Speaker B:Thanks for joining us today.
Speaker C:Thank you, Parnell.
Speaker C:Good to see you.
Speaker C:One more time.
Speaker C:And yes, it is unbelievable.
Speaker C:It's been so long back there that time flies.
Speaker C:I know, but here we are.
Speaker B:I try not to think about it.
Speaker B:They were great times.
Speaker B:We had such a great crew.
Speaker B:It was an amazing place to be.
Speaker C:It was.
Speaker B:I wanna jump into a little bit around what inspired you to leave the corporate world and really start your own business.
Speaker B:It's a big step for a lot of people leaving that security blanket of corporate America.
Speaker B:But what inspired you to leave the corporate world and head out on your own?
Speaker C:Well, that's a loaded question because there's a lot of things that were happening at the time.
Speaker C:I had a tremendous career with Seagram.
Speaker C:I started as a brand manager and climbed up and actually I lived.
Speaker C:I'm originally from Venezuela, so I came to Miami and from there I went to Argentina.
Speaker C:I was managing several countries there, came back to New York and so I've been in the spirits world for a long time and I was always seeking that opportunity to do something else.
Speaker C:So I had that warm in me that I would do something on my own.
Speaker C:And Seagram got bought up by Pernod Ricard and there was all this transition and I said, you know what?
Speaker C:Although I'm in a corporate in a good position, it could end at any time.
Speaker C:So let's get something Prepared.
Speaker C:So I did spend about two years, you know, thinking about what I could do, what my skill was.
Speaker C:But I always had that bug that I could be here for many years or maybe not, because with all these corporate changes, acquisitions and reorganizations, you always ask the question, could it be me next?
Speaker C:So it was more about controlling my destiny and building something that I could leverage with my knowledge, my network.
Speaker C:But there were a lot of things that were happening at the time.
Speaker C:You know, that transition with a French company, it changed the culture of the company.
Speaker C:So I said, this is the time to do it.
Speaker C: And that was: Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:So then in terms of Orinoco, when it kind of got up and running in 14, what.
Speaker B:What did you do for those 10 years?
Speaker B:You had this idea, you really wanted to make this happen.
Speaker B:How did you close that gap?
Speaker C:Well, absolutely, there's two.
Speaker C:The one thing I did out of, out of corporate America, I had a project already doing consulting.
Speaker C:And it was, it was more geared towards marketing consulting.
Speaker C:It was a group that had some marketing methodologies to implement for small, medium sized businesses.
Speaker C:However, I started with that.
Speaker C:I actually became the highest revenue generator of the group of about 100 people.
Speaker C:On the consulting side, however, I realized that starting a consulting business requires at least two people.
Speaker C:One that's always fishing for the next client, the other one that does the work.
Speaker C:Yeah, so, I mean, I've learned that the hard way.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And it was, it was a roller coaster at the time and.
Speaker C:But doing my consulting, I ended up meeting a Polish gentleman who had started a vodka brand.
Speaker C:And I said, you know, this, I could help you on this.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And we kind of came together, we raised money, we raised about 1.2 million of investor money and we started working the brand and it went really well.
Speaker C:In Florida, we were, you know, as you know, the spirits business, you got to start in one place and make it good before you start spreading it yourself too thin.
Speaker C:So I did that for a while and, and at the time we were doing very well in Florida.
Speaker C:We got R and D Republic, National RNDC to take our brand.
Speaker C:And I thought, hey, we hit the jackpot here.
Speaker C:We got a major distributor.
Speaker C:And then I realized that we were still doing the work ourselves.
Speaker C:So it's like, oh, gosh.
Speaker C:And then you pass on the orders to the distributor and they would just fill the order.
Speaker C:But it required a lot of capital, you know that.
Speaker C:I mean, a spirit brand that you foresee to become something important is a very, very heavy investment up front.
Speaker C:And so we did very well.
Speaker C:And once we had some good track.
Speaker C:We sold the brand.
Speaker C:We actually sold the brand to.
Speaker C:To Brown, not to Brown Foreman, to the owners of Diplomatico Rum, who.
Speaker C:Which was a rum that I developed while I was in serum, I did the whole development of that product.
Speaker C:And, and that product just got sold about a couple of years ago.
Speaker C:And I understand it was about $700 million.
Speaker C:And Brown Forum bought it.
Speaker C:So they, this crew bought our vodka because we were.
Speaker C:Our distribution was really good and they wanted to get more, more penetration with their rums.
Speaker C:And so we sold the brand at the time to them.
Speaker C:And then from there I said, well, I know the business.
Speaker C:I partnered up with Enrique Alvarez, who was a VP and Duty Free of the Americas.
Speaker C:So we both had a nice network of distributors around Latin America.
Speaker C:And I went out searching for brands, for brands that could be available to us.
Speaker C:We actually found one was called Highland Queen, a Scotch.
Speaker C:And because our market, main market is Venezuela, that's our background, and that's the highest consuming scotch market in.
Speaker C:Among the highest in the world.
Speaker C:We just started with that.
Speaker C:And nowadays it's a business that runs on its own.
Speaker C:We put everything in place.
Speaker C:We have a team that takes care of the distributors, and we are just shipping containers out there to the distributors.
Speaker C:So we kind of became a broker of spirits.
Speaker B:Interesting.
Speaker B:So as a smaller company, right, in Orinoco, was there a particular problem or, you know, was it more of a passion or something you wanted to pursue that you couldn't do in a corporate setting that the smaller company in that startup mentality allowed you to do?
Speaker C:Well, absolutely, because if you own a brand, you.
Speaker C:You own everything.
Speaker C:So the decisions you make on your own with your business partner.
Speaker C:But I got to tell you, there was a one shock to me was I had my business card from being in Perno Ricard when they purchased Seagram, and I had my title.
Speaker C:And it's funny, when you become an entrepreneur, that title disappears and your network kind of changes.
Speaker C:Your network is a different one.
Speaker C:And one of the things that to me was incredible was the people I thought would help me didn't.
Speaker C:And the people I never expected to help me, help me.
Speaker B:Interesting.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So that was a learning, you know, of being an entrepreneur.
Speaker C:And, and I said at that time, I was like, oh, we got a network, you know, start networking heavily because my network is, you know, they can help us.
Speaker C:And in some, in some cases, you know, our past friends, you know, gave us a hand and helped us get into certain channels.
Speaker C:But that was, that was a tough one to, to realize that you no longer had a title there.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, in terms of challenges, coming out of corporate America, starting your own, was there something in particular that you felt was really challenging or was the hardest part about leaving the structure and security of that corporate job?
Speaker C:Well, absolutely.
Speaker C:You know, it's a corporate job.
Speaker C:You know, when you're getting paid and, you know, you don't worry about it.
Speaker C:So when you're on your own and you're looking.
Speaker C:Your bank account's going down, and I better get some money into that bank account.
Speaker C:That.
Speaker C:That to me is the.
Speaker C:Is the toughest, is to manage your cash flow correctly, and you have to make decisions that you wouldn't make as a corporate.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Employee.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:And I.
Speaker C:What I mean is just fast decisions and maybe, you know, take some risk because, you know, that is what entrepreneurship is.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's risk taking.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:And it's betting on something that you believe could be a strong company.
Speaker C:Yeah, but.
Speaker C:But, yeah, I thought.
Speaker C:I think that was, you know, some of the challenges.
Speaker C:Were there a lot on the networking side of.
Speaker C:Of the business, did you face any.
Speaker B:Resistance from family, friends, colleagues, you know, and if so, how did you handle it?
Speaker C:I did not.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And it was amazing.
Speaker C:My family supported me, my parents supported me, and my dad was like, yeah, go.
Speaker C:Go at it.
Speaker C:Go.
Speaker C:And my mother.
Speaker C:My mother's a cheerleader.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:So I, you know, I.
Speaker C:I did not have anyone question what I was doing.
Speaker C:You know, it was normal.
Speaker C:I mean, we came from the spirits world, and I'm working with Spirits brand, so, you know, it just.
Speaker C:They just saw it as a next step.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Were there any specific resources or mentors, you know, that really helped you navigate some of those early days and those early challenges?
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean, my father is an entrepreneur.
Speaker C:He's still alive.
Speaker C:He's.
Speaker C:He's not.
Speaker C:He's 92, and he's still.
Speaker C:We're working together on a business deal.
Speaker B:That's great.
Speaker B:That's great.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:So yeah, dad gave me a lot.
Speaker C:A lot of.
Speaker C:I would run by him some ideas.
Speaker C:So he, you know, he's.
Speaker C:He's.
Speaker C:Besides being my dad, he was also my coach.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:That's good to hear.
Speaker B:Were there any.
Speaker B:Were there any misconceptions you had about entrepreneurship before you started out?
Speaker B:Were there certain things you expected, certain things that maybe were easier than you expected or harder than you expected?
Speaker C:I think that to be an entrepreneur, you got to have a spirit of success, and even if you fall, you get up and you keep going, and you got to Believe on that, north on that objective.
Speaker C:So the most difficult part is to stay focused on that objective and not have that roller coaster ride affect what your vision is.
Speaker C:So that was a challenge.
Speaker C:And as I said before, your cash flow is a challenge.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Interesting.
Speaker B:How has being an entrepreneur and having your own business affected your work life?
Speaker B:Balance your personal goals?
Speaker C:That's a good question.
Speaker C:It was funny because when I left corporate America, I said, and I started my consulting gig, some of that I could have just had my pajamas on and worked from my computer, but I made it.
Speaker C:I obligated myself to get up, exercise, get ready and get dressed as if I was going to an office.
Speaker C:Yeah, okay.
Speaker C:So, I mean, there's some, There's a lot of psychology around.
Speaker C:There is, you know, being an entrepreneur and what keeps you going and, you know, what you try to build is a solid baseline that you say, okay, here we are.
Speaker C:Okay, I got a grip on this.
Speaker C:This can turn into something, you know, better as we work on it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Do you have any tools or strategies that help you maintain that sense of balance between work and outside of work?
Speaker C:No, I wouldn't say a tool, but it's more about the focus and the attitude.
Speaker C:There are tools out there that I use today, like Notion.
Speaker C:You know, it's an amazing tool that combines all kinds of apps into one.
Speaker C:And that's the thing that keeps you going.
Speaker C:But the other answer to this, Parnell, is that, and this happened later, after consulting, there is a book called 12 Week Year.
Speaker C:And that book talks about make 12 weeks like a year plan, like a yearly plan into 12 weeks.
Speaker C:So you have.
Speaker C:So, so when you say, I want to get X amount of cases out there of our product by year end, I want to focus on my quarter, so what am I doing for the next 12 weeks and where do I want to be in 12 weeks?
Speaker C:And then I do another 12 weeks in 12 weeks and we go on.
Speaker C:But the breaking that down, it was important to be able to say, okay, I gotta reach certain milestones within 12 weeks.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, Interesting too.
Speaker B:And it gives you.
Speaker B:It's easy to think big picture sometimes, you know, as an entrepreneur, and sometimes it's really hard to break that down into smaller, really digestible steps that get you to where you want to be for the year.
Speaker B:And it sounds like that book was really instrumental in helping you with that focus.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:And I keep doing that.
Speaker C:And we use it today in our business that we are.
Speaker C:I have a colleague who also uses it and we came together and having a conversation we're like, okay, now we're on the same page.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker C:But, yeah, it is about breaking that goal down.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Do you have boundaries you've established from work and play or work outside of work?
Speaker C:Yes, I have, but they were not strict.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:So I did have.
Speaker C:I.
Speaker C:I've always had the mentality of sharing with family.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:And to me, is.
Speaker C:Is.
Speaker C:Is important.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And I.
Speaker C:I gave up a few things of being an entrepreneur just to, you know, be with my kids and certain activities.
Speaker C:I wouldn't miss them because I know what it means to.
Speaker C:To them for you to be there or for you to not be there.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:So I, you know, I did a lot of traveling and.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:But at the end, when I was home, I tried.
Speaker C:I tried to disconnect.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:What do you think is the most rewarding part of owning your own business?
Speaker C:Well, the.
Speaker C:The rewarding part is that you own your.
Speaker C:Your destiny, it's your effort, and you don't depend on someone else.
Speaker C:Although our business depends on others.
Speaker C:That, to me, is very difficult because you are going 200 miles an hour, but your network is not going at 200 miles an hour.
Speaker C:So you want to get it done.
Speaker C:You want to, hey, let's make a deal.
Speaker C:Oh, wait, I'm going on vacation.
Speaker C:I'll talk to you in two weeks.
Speaker C:And you're like, oh, gosh, I wanted to get that deal done.
Speaker C:And you end up getting it done.
Speaker C:But the frustrating part is the speed at which I want to work doesn't fit into my network or my clients.
Speaker B:I hear that from a lot of folks that are business owners.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Nobody moves as fast as I do.
Speaker B:And it's because you know what you want to do, you know what you want to get accomplished.
Speaker B:But, you know, like, the earlier part of that you talked about was just the freedom and the control, and it is.
Speaker B:It is an amazingly empowering feeling.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Once you get past some of the fears, once you get past some of the concerns, you start to build a business.
Speaker B:You start to see income.
Speaker B:Income that you feel good about, you can live with, and you're happy with.
Speaker B:It becomes incredibly empowering, you know, going forward.
Speaker B:So was there.
Speaker B:Is there.
Speaker B:Is there a moment or a milestone that made you stop and think, this is why I started this business?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And it wasn't with the business we're talking about.
Speaker C:That business.
Speaker C:The Orinoco Spirits is a business that's.
Speaker C:That's doing well and pays, pays, pays our bills, and that's everything.
Speaker C:But.
Speaker C:But it's a business Where I really don't need to do much.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's rolling.
Speaker C:It's, you know, we get orders from our distributors.
Speaker C:They're selling, they have to structure.
Speaker C:They have their salespeople.
Speaker C:They have everything.
Speaker C:So the question was on, on, on some of the success.
Speaker C:You say, hey, you know, I made it on the side.
Speaker C:I had another company that I was a partner in that had natural cleaning products.
Speaker C:And I'm always looking for the next big thing, and they invited me to join, and I was a minority ownership there.
Speaker C:And long story short, we had Disney Laundry.
Speaker C:We had Coca Cola of Puerto Rico using our product.
Speaker C:We had Six Flags using our products.
Speaker C:So we're like, we made it.
Speaker C:And here is where the failure comes.
Speaker C:Ecolab, which is the largest chemical company out there in terms of cleaning products, and they paid Disney over $10 million to not allow us into Disney.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker C:And the same thing happened with Coca Cola.
Speaker C:So in Coca Cola, we started in Puerto Rico because we had a good access to the CEO there.
Speaker C:And the story is funny because we eliminated the Sunday shift of cleaning.
Speaker C:What Ecolab had.
Speaker C:They had four hours of cleaning time on Sunday.
Speaker C:We did it in 40 minutes on Saturday.
Speaker C:And so you're like, we made it.
Speaker C:I mean, these guys, Coca Cola, I mean, what a amazing client to have.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:But they got us.
Speaker C:They got, they, they, they threw the money there as well.
Speaker C:So, and, and so it really became a challenge.
Speaker C:But you know, that feeling of success comes when, when you get some of these bigger deals happening.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:If you could go back.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Is there one thing you would do differently or some, Some big decision maybe, or approach you wish you'd handle differently?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I mean, if it's, if we're referring to, like, Orinoco spirits, I could have, I could have had.
Speaker C:I could have started a network while I was still in corporate as a side hustle.
Speaker C:And, and, and you know, when, when I hear some people walking out of corporate and you ask, do you have a plan?
Speaker C:And they're like, no, not really.
Speaker C:I'm gonna figure it out.
Speaker C:That's trouble.
Speaker C:That's major trouble.
Speaker C:So I did have it in mind to continue in the, in the spirits business.
Speaker C:But I had not found that opportunity until I came across that gentleman, that Polish vodka that we had.
Speaker C:But it's about building on the side as much as you can and most likely, like, preparing your network to say, okay, I'm going to go do this, and, you know, will do you help and start, you know, understanding who's going to.
Speaker C:Who's the One who's going to help you on with your projects.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, it sounds like.
Speaker B:And that's really.
Speaker B:That segues it kind of into my next question around.
Speaker B:You know, somebody comes up to you and says, hey, Dell, I'm thinking about getting into business ownership.
Speaker B:Are there real practical steps that you might recommend to them for somebody that wants to learn a little bit more about it?
Speaker C:Yeah, and I always question myself because I didn't do it.
Speaker C:And it was, it's probably easier to buy a business that's already running, although it's going to cost you more upfront.
Speaker C:They already went through the trouble, they already went through the startup, they already went through the tough times.
Speaker C:So, I mean, that's a position I am in now where I became a partner of a company that was already, you know, generating revenue, but they needed a lot of work.
Speaker C:I mean, it's a lot of changes of moving a family business, which, which started as an entrepreneurship into a corporation that doesn't lose that family touch.
Speaker C:Yeah, but, but that recommendation for anyone that wants to start is consider buying a business.
Speaker B:Interesting, interesting.
Speaker B:Are there any misconceptions about business ownership that you'd want them to know?
Speaker C:I think I mentioned it when I said to you, who's going to help you, who do you expect help from and what your title meant?
Speaker C:So it was more important the title than the name at the time.
Speaker C:So, yeah, I think that kind of addresses that question.
Speaker B:Anything you would tell them about how to prepare emotionally or financially for the challenges ahead?
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:12 years of income, you know, reserved.
Speaker B:12 years or 12 months.
Speaker C:Sorry, 12 months.
Speaker C:I need some coffee.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:You know, one year of, of, of of your salary.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:And if it's more better, you know what I mean?
Speaker C:But, but you have to have a financial base.
Speaker C:You can't just hop out and give it a try.
Speaker C:You have to have some back.
Speaker C:Back.
Speaker C:You have to be backed up financially.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:What about emotionally?
Speaker B:The ups and downs, you know.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's tough.
Speaker C:It is.
Speaker C:That's tough, but that's tough.
Speaker C:But if, if you understand where you're heading, you can, you can ride it.
Speaker C:And it always be a roller coaster.
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean, I think it's very hard.
Speaker C:I mean, unless you have something very unique that nobody else has, it will take double time and double money, amount of money to do whatever you were planning to do.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I had somebody on the other day and he talked about not getting too high with the goods and not getting too low with the valleys, you know, and kind of keeping an even keel because you will, you're going to have those moments where you feel like you're on top of the world and you're going to have like what dip.
Speaker B:I do, you know.
Speaker C:Yes, exactly.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I mean riding that roller coaster is, is, is a difficult one.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:Okay, rapid fire.
Speaker B:Some wrap up questions for you.
Speaker B:If you could have dinner with any entrepreneur, past or present, who would it be and why?
Speaker C:Ah, there are so many out there.
Speaker C:I, I think Mark Cuban would be one.
Speaker C:He's, I mean he's, he, you know, he started lowing, moan, mowing the lawn and it's just a great story, I mean, of having a vision.
Speaker C:And I think that entrepreneurship is someone who has a vision because otherwise you're never going to get there.
Speaker C:But yeah, that would be, I think Mark Cuban would be an interesting conversation.
Speaker B:Yeah, no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker B:You mentioned notion earlier, but is there one business tool or app that you just could not live without?
Speaker C:I mean, I did hundreds of models in Excel and I still do them.
Speaker C:I look at a business and I put a model together and I start doing numbers and I say, does this make sense?
Speaker C:How are we going to make money?
Speaker C:What's the strategy?
Speaker C:I'm all about numbers because numbers make decisions for you.
Speaker C:So I'm all about that.
Speaker C:And I'm also all about automation and trying to get something done by someone else.
Speaker C:And if you get people to work for you, it's better.
Speaker C:Entrepreneurship is much better when you got someone doing the work for you.
Speaker B:I talk to people all the time and I ask them when they are going to stop being somebody else's passive income, you know.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker B:That's what they're doing.
Speaker B:They're making somebody else.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:So what we do in Orinoco is our distributors are the ones that are working for us.
Speaker C:Sure, sure.
Speaker C:That's, that's, that's it.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:What's the most unconventional piece of business advice you've ever received that actually worked?
Speaker C:Unconventional?
Speaker C:I don't know.
Speaker C:That's a, that's a tough one.
Speaker C:I don't know.
Speaker C:I did so many things that I don't know.
Speaker C:To me they're conventional.
Speaker B:If you had to describe your business in a movie title, what would it be?
Speaker C:Get others to work for you.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Last but not least, one guilty pleasure that helps you unwind after a long day working on your business.
Speaker C:Oh, you know it, you know that one?
Speaker C:A single malt.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, a single malt, you know, on the, on ice.
Speaker C:And it's, you know, that's, that's, that's the bottom line of enjoying life, you know, having that.
Speaker C:That whatchamacallit, that.
Speaker C:That moment to yourself.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And that's a moment that you relax, but your mind is.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker C:Cranking, cranking, cranking.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Awesome.
Speaker B:Dell, thanks so much for.
Speaker B:For spending some time with us today.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker C:For now.
Speaker B:No, Glad to have you.
Speaker B:Folks.
Speaker B:Del PI has a long and tenured background, a number of business, couple businesses now on his own.
Speaker B:So thanks again very much for joining us.
Speaker B:I'm Parnell Woodard.
Speaker B:This is the pivot point.
Speaker B:We'll see you guys next time.
Speaker C:Thank you.
